Page 9

Four days had slithered past since the Flip. Not much had changed other than the level of my patience. I was anxious and restless, virtually climbing the walls and finding it increasingly difficult to breathe at times. My parents were obviously thrilled to be reunited with me, but our location loomed over our heads like a rotten apple, chunks of it falling onto our foreheads to remind us of our imprisonment.

The Black Heights might look like the ones back home, only they weren’t real, and every single Shadian dragon knew it. I could see it on their sour faces whenever they came out of their caves or whenever they had to withdraw there for the night. It was a general feeling, however, applicable to every single Shadian who’d been confined to this place.

At least my parents weren’t worried sick about me anymore, and Isabelle had been reunited with her family. She had been gone two months, and they hadn’t even realized it.

“Where are you going, honey?” Mom asked as soon as she saw me get up and move away from the small fire we’d built to warm us in the morning. This was the one palpable difference between this island and the real one—these Black Heights were much colder, especially near dawn. I’d noticed the difference before, but seeing my fellow dragons observe it as well reminded me of how far away from home we truly were. It only served to feed my festering anxiety, plus I hadn’t seen Jericho in a few days, since just after the Flip. That stung the worst, and I couldn’t help but feel bad.

My father had insisted that we stick together, ice dragons with ice dragons, as if their petty feuds with the fire dragons even mattered anymore. They didn’t, and the great Lethe knew it, too, but abandoning their otherwise hilarious verbal skirmishes with the fire dragons would’ve meant admitting that our predicament was truly terrible. Renouncing the normalcy we’d lived with for so long solely because that bitch of a Valkyrie had decided to take over our home and toss us in here would’ve meant we were giving up. I understood why my father felt the way he did, but I didn’t appreciate the divide it created between me and Jericho. Not after all we’d been through together.

“I need some air,” I said, my tone flat. It wasn’t my mother’s fault, yet I couldn’t help it. I was being snappy with everybody, and I knew that part of the reason was because I missed a certain fire dragon. I had been working on ways to adjust to this new reality. Then again, ice dragons were naturally averse to change in any form, which should have made me resistant to our predicament, much like the rest of my ice-breathing family, who were constantly grunting and pacing their caves, unable to leave this place. It made me smile, knowing that even though I was technically only half-ice-dragon, I was still more ice dragon than the rest of them put together.

“Are you okay?” she replied, watching me intently as I checked my earpiece, then put it back on. Dad always had his on, and mine had become a source of frustration lately, since Jericho hadn’t even bothered to say hello. Sure, I’d been busy with my folks, and he’d been busy with his, but still… I would’ve appreciated a message, at least. We’d almost kissed, hadn’t we? I hadn’t imagined that?

I gave her a soft smile, trying to hide my emotions, if only to avoid another conversation about how I needed to be more open with my feelings. “I’m fine, Mom. Just a little stir crazy. I’m only going to stretch my legs since there’s no news from the Great Dome about a way of getting out of this fresh hell.”

“Your father will be back soon,” she reminded me. “Don’t stay out too long.”

Her attempts at parenting were endearing, especially since I was past the age where such lines were even needed, but I knew this was her way of coping with what had happened. She’d lost me for a while, and she’d only just gotten me back. I didn’t even want to imagine the kind of horrors she must have imagined in my absence I was her only child—she’d worked with the witches and the Faulty twins to conceive me. Basically, I’d been so much work, losing me would’ve broken her beyond repair.

Instead, I chose to go over and hug my mother, and she planted a kiss on my cheek. I felt the whole universe of her love in that kiss, and I welcomed it, knowing that someday I might have children of my own who ran off to visit crazy new places, leaving me to wonder about their safety. Karma did have a way of paying people back. “I won’t be long, I promise. Also, I’ve got my earpiece on if you need me,” I told her, then walked out of the cave and into the cold and empty darkness.

The sky was blank and black, that strange light glowing from above though none of us had managed to find the damned source yet. The wind blew through the tree crowns, making the leaves rustle and rattle oddly. It was as if even the made-up nature of this place was working overtime to remind us that we weren’t home. That we were prisoners.

“Hrista, you heinous, heinous nightmare,” I muttered, taking a deep breath.

To the south, I could see the lights of the Vale flickering. The clones’ Vale, currently occupied by real humans. To the west, the redwood residences sprawled beneath the lush and trembling canopies, extending for at least a mile or so before the witches’ sanctuary—which was nothing but a pretty clearing with Hrista’s two-story white villa. I knew Corrine and Ibrahim had begrudgingly kept their distance from that place, choosing to spend their time in constant and relentless analysis of every inch of the glass house extension instead, hoping to find something that might bring them closer to a solution for our infuriating predicament.

Yeah, we were all dying to get the hell out of here.

I could see Caia and Blaze’s cave from here, too. My irritation began to take on new and surprisingly big proportions. I was on edge, and knowing that Jericho was somewhere in there… it made my blood pump hotter and faster than ever. The walls I had surrounded my heart with were thawing away, perhaps a little too quickly for my comfort. I was feeling things I had never felt before, and my reactions to Jericho’s absence were equally frustrating and confusing.

If I went to him now, I would reveal myself as emotionally attached—or so I thought. It made sense to me. Maybe I was wrong, but my instincts screamed against it. Plus, fire and ice dragons didn’t mix. That was a cultural aspect I had repeatedly ignored since I’d met Jericho. Now that my father was back in the picture, I found it harder to set aside. Third, Jericho hadn’t said a word in days. If I made the first move, I worried I’d come across as needy. Or desperate. Or worse.

“What’s worse than needy?” I muttered, stretching my arms out.

It had been a while since I’d taken flight. I had my combo suit on, of which Soph and I had nabbed two from the armory before we’d blown it up, so all I had to do was pull the special black string on my hip and the fabric would roll away into a collar. I turned full dragon and the collar hung nicely around my neck, ready to be unwound and refitted into the combo suit on my humanoid frame. Until then, however, I had this peculiar sky to myself.

Flapping my wings several times, I reveled in the sensation of my scales shuddering and moving ever so slightly as I stretched and lifted my head. I huffed and puffed, as if I’d expelled an entire bag of dust from the bottom of my lungs. The weight of the entire world had just fallen off my shoulders. The clones were gone, as were the Berserkers and Hrista, the wretched fiend. It had vanished—the trouble, the rage, the impotence against this new and still mysterious enemy.

I was a dragon, and I was ready to fly.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard a familiar sound of wings flapping, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I plunged from the edge of the cave and dropped until I could almost taste the morning dew on the redwood leaves before I soared again. I went higher and higher, past the smoky clouds that were nothing more than an illusion.

I reached for the heavens, though I knew there were no heavens here. I wondered, though… where did this pocket of lies end? Where did the sky end? What if I could just pierce through and find my way back to the real island?

Driven by an intense curiosity, I accelerated. The air grew colder, making my spine tingle. I loved the icy feel of the atmosphere against my scaly skin. Breathing out, I pushed myself higher and higher. The sky could not be my limit. I refused to let this place get the better of me.

And then something hard bumped into me.

It knocked me off my course. I found myself flailing and roaring, suddenly angered and embarrassed by my inability to keep it together. Jericho’s roar filled the fake sky, and I turned my head to find him shooting toward me like a massive black arrow with turquoise eyes and ridiculously sharp fangs. He was smiling.

How dare he smile! He just rammed into me! He threw me off my game!

Oh, he was having fun. Entire days of not saying a word, and suddenly he was the king of the skies? Nope. Not a chance. I wasn’t going to let this play out that way. I quickly hatched a plan, and I knew exactly where this encounter would end.

Snarling, I lunged at him. It made Jericho growl once more but with a smidge of delight as he flew away from me. We were chasing each other, and he was clearly having a good time. I didn’t cut him any slack, though I did enjoy letting him come after me, if only to keep those muscles working. We dashed above the fake island, forgetting about everything else around us.

This dance of dragons would end with a kiss. I knew it. I was determined to make it so, if only to teach him a lesson about playing with me this way. My walls of ice were thawing in his presence, yes, but that didn’t mean things would go how he wanted. No. This morning, our lips will meet, and then I’ll leave him hanging and yearning for more.

Determined to reach my desired conclusion, I dropped into a sudden spiraling motion. Less than a mile ahead, Sun Beach stretched lazily against the dark waters, its golden sands glistening against the fake skylight. That was our destination. That was where I’d win this particularly exciting game that Jericho likely didn’t even realize we were playing. Or maybe he did…

I’ll show you!